Injury decides Bellator outcome
Benson Henderson wins in 2nd round after Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire hurts his leg.
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire wasn’t looking to honor the release of the Roberto Duran film, “Hands of Stone,” on Friday with his own “no mas,” but the moment was certainly similar.
Freire suddenly stopped fighting 2 minutes, 26 seconds into the second round, stunning all, including the victorious Benson Henderson, in the main event of Bellator 160 at Honda Center.
After taking a seat on his stool to elevate his right leg, Freire reported that he injured the leg on a kick and could not continue.
“I knew for sure when I checked two of his kicks, both of the checks were [good],” said Henderson (24-6), a former UFC lightweight champion. “One, he backed away right away. I worked on check kicks. I guess I’ll take a ‘W’ any way I can get it.”
Action halted with Freire hopping, pointing to his right foot and turning from Henderson to reach his corner.
Henderson didn’t do much in a first round that inspired boos from the crowd as former featherweight Freire (25-4) couldn’t bridge the distance Henderson sought to maintain.
The action didn’t increase much in the second round, but after the win Henderson accepted a Nov. 19 lightweight title shot at Bellator champion Michael Chandler.
Before the main event, lightweight Derek Anderson of Carlsbad absorbed heavy punches and avoided a choke try in the first round before landing his own power shots en route to a unanimous-decision victory over Saad Awad of San Bernardino by scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.
In a 149-pound catchweight bout, Riverside’s Georgi Karakhanyan repeated a prior victory over Huntington Beach-trained Bubba Jenkins with a firstround knockout.
Long Beach featherweight A.J. McKee (5-0) overwhelmed Huntington Beachtrained Cody Walker standing and on the canvas before finishing Walker by a modified guillotine choke 32 seconds into the second round.
Bellator also announced the signing of former UFC welterweight title challenger Rory MacDonald of Canada, who staged the 2015 fight of the year in a loss to thenchampion Robbie Lawler.